Hip & Hot Package Printers Spotlight

Often in our industry, we highlight new products and new technologies. We do it so much in fact, that sometimes we forget to celebrate the human aspect of our business — particularly the men and women behind these innovations. We forget that these amazing things come to be because of thriving company cultures, happy employees, and firms that care deeply about their teams and the work they produce.

With this article, we aim to celebrate people. Packaging Impressions highlights four label package printers and converters that stand out from the competition and set a standard for the rest of the industry to follow.

Veritiv: Always Listening and Improving

For Veritiv, its thriving company culture simply comes from listening
to its employees.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Veritiv is a full-service provider of packaging solutions. The Fortune 500 company also serves the facilities market with hygiene products and services. It has distribution centers in the U.S. and Mexico, and team members around the world with upward of 10,000 employees.

Maggie Keenoy, print sales associate; Tony Geracie, print sales representative; and Bryan Duncan, print sales associate | Credit: Veritiv

Last September, Veritiv was named one of Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Best Places to Work” and most recently it was featured in 2023 Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies.

Jeff Pfister, VP of commercial operations, believes the driver behind the awards is the company culture developed since Veritiv’s founding in 2014.

“We’ve created a culture of collaboration, inclusivity, and openness resulting in ultimately a pretty psychologically safe environment for our employees,” Pfister says. “But the journey is just beginning and ultimately we’re proud to be building that dynamic and empowering culture together where we place our people first, but ultimately, it starts with listening to our employees and responding to their feedback.”

Pfister explains when current CEO Sal Abbate assumed the role two years ago, the senior leadership team conducted a listening tour to get feedback from employees on the issues that matter most to them. Veritiv used that feedback to create action plans.

Since then, Veritiv has implemented a long list of culture-enhancing activities, which include profit sharing for 5,000 employees who were not previously eligible for bonuses; a host of additional employee benefits, including floating holidays and extended paid parental leave; and maintaining its hybrid work environment for employees who are largely sitting at desks.

Pfister notes that Veritiv also just completed its second “Voice to the Employee” engagement survey — which was started as a result of the listening tour — to keep a pulse on its employees, how they’re feeling, and how they’re engaged with the company. This year, it had more than 90% of its employees participate while keeping its 2023 engagement score.

Pfister says that not only does its company culture keep employees happy and heard, but it also allows the company to operate as one entity — all sharing the same goal.

“The goals that we’ve created for the company, we’ve put an extra emphasis on making sure that these goals are clearly communicated and consistent across the organization,” Pfister says. “So, basically, the way to think about it is we have all 5,000 various team members running in the same direction towards the same set of goals. And quite frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it in terms of inertia and initiative in the organization. That’s ultimately driving our performance at the end of the day.”

Meyers: Recreating the Purpose

From left: CEO Chris Dillon Jr. and Chief Revenue Officer Michael Dillon — as cousins — represent the third generation of the Dillon family to lead Meyers. | Credit: Meyers

At Meyers, its believed that the best companies focus on a larger purpose — that’s why over the past three years, the Minneapolis-based company has made the leap from being a traditional printer to a sustainable packaging printer.

Michael Dillon, Meyers’ chief revenue officer, notes that even though the company is three years into its sustainability journey, it is only the beginning. Currently, Meyers utilizes sustainable materials and carbon-free electricity, and is even on track to have full net zero emissions by 2040.

“It’s a multifaceted thing that spans how we buy our energy, the standards we hold for the suppliers that we work with, [and] the way that we help our clients select their materials,” Dillon says. “It’s a whole range of things. And that’s part of why it took us just a few years to get really public about what we’ve been doing. And ... we’re still well within the first half of the journey to be the most sustainable packaging company out there.”

It’s important to note that Meyers is a third-generation family-owned-and-operated business. In 2021, the late company founder Gerry Dillon’s grandsons took the reins at the company, with Chris Dillon Jr., moving into the role of CEO and Michael Dillon being named chief revenue officer. The two of them
then purchased controlling interest of the company early in 2022.

Dillon describes moving into his leadership role as a “changing of the guards” and notes that with him and his cousin taking over, they wanted to recreate the purpose of the company.

“The company had a purpose before we took over, but my cousin and I wanted a purpose that was much more central to what we do on a day in, day out basis that was much more succinct and much more clear,” he says. “So, we came up with a purpose statement that we’re here to create a better future for people, products, and our planet.”

Even though its immediate focus is producing labels, boxes, retail displays, and printed electronics, Dillon insists the people you work with are also a priority.

“Whether it’s your team, or your clients, or your suppliers,” he says, “at the end of the day, we’re all people, and we think it’s important that people also come first. And for me especially, although certainly for my cousin and for lots of people, this company, sustainability is a really big deal. So, we knew we wanted to have our planet in there and this gives us sort of a North Star as a company.”

McDowell Label: Communication is Key For Success

According to John McDowell of Plano, Texas-based McDowell Label, a Resource Label Group company, they’ve been intentional when it comes to cultivating, fostering, and galvanizing a diverse and award-winning workplace culture. In fact, McDowell says the company employed a diverse workforce before DEI became in vogue.

McDowell, who is president of McDowell Label, notes that the culture the company has fostered is intrinsic to its DNA and it’s the reason why McDowell Label is renowned for innovation and has more than 500 awards to its name.

McDowell Label Headquarters in Plano, Texas. | Credit: McDowell Label

He describes building this culture as a “brick-by-brick” process.

“It’s been purposeful, intentional, and it’s all about people: our team,” McDowell says. “You can’t just have a band director and expect everyone’s going to come in, pick up their respective instruments, and purvey world-class performance (or, in this case, their respective role of responsibility and just adopt it). So, we’re keenly vigilant about how we identify, attract, and acquire new talent.”

Like with most cases and scenarios, communication is paramount, and McDowell says part of the reason the culture has made the company so successful is its mindfulness when it comes to communication — expectations, responsibilities, and extreme ownership regarding its brand, decorum, professionalism, and quality.

He explains that with each client, every key stakeholder of every department is engaged to learn and understand the client’s brand essence criteria.

“We have a process where we bring in virtually all key stakeholders to ensure that they understand the brand essence criteria, because if every department doesn’t understand the brand essence criteria and the fitness-for-use criteria, it’s a crapshoot, a transactional order,” McDowell says. “So, we’re mindful and purposeful about communicating effectively, and educating our team [about] the brand essence criteria for every single brand portfolio we serve.

“The same culture that goes into our day-to-day processes and the way we perform is not just an outward expression to brands,” he continues. “It’s very much an inward expression to the community of our company, our team.”

As for what truly sets McDowell Label apart from the rest, he says it’s all about knowing who you are as a company. “We know who we are. We are one company, one team, with one purpose,” McDowell says. “With an active-learning and growth mindset, we focus on building ‘label leaders’ among our team and we focus on serving our customers’ needs; we don’t try to be anybody else [other] than who we are. We’re not really good at trying to be somebody else. But knowing who we are means we know our business and we know our customers’ business.”

Taylor Prime Labels and Packaging: Keeping the Longevity Going

Tom O’Brien (R) believes Taylor's employees are its greatest asset. | Credit: Taylor Prime Labels and Packaging

When Greenville, North Carolina’s AccuFlex — the flexible packaging division of AccuLink, which was founded by Tom O’Brien — was acquired by Taylor Corporation in 2022, O’Brien says there seemed to be a “cultural alignment.”

Now, AccuFlex has rebranded as Taylor Prime Labels and Packaging and serves different markets, such as wine and spirts, food and beverage, beauty, and more, producing flexible packaging, pressure-sensitive labels, roll-fed labels, shrink sleeves, and custom folding cartons.

“If you go look at Taylor employees on LinkedIn, you’re going to find employees that have been there 40 years, 35 years, 30 years, 25 years, and I still have the first and fourth employee I ever hired,” O’Brien says.

O’Brien notes that within Taylor Prime Labels and Packaging, he has multiple employees who have been with him for more than 20 years. They are essentially family to him, so it was important to continue his company under the stewardship of a corporation that truly values its employees.

Taylor Prime Labels and Packaging employees working diligently inside the company's Greenville, North Carolina facility. | Credit: Taylor Prime Labels and Packaging

“Taylor wouldn’t have the longevity that they’ve got with employees if it weren’t a great place to work,” O’Brien says. “They look at employees as being the most valuable asset, just as I always have.”

As it’s approaching the one-year anniversary of the acquisition, O’Brien says that so far everything has been smooth sailing — the fact that Taylor has completed more than 200 acquisitions doesn’t hurt either.

“You know the fact that they’ve done so many, and so many of them successfully, that was another really important factor to us as well,” O’Brien says. “Now, we’re eight or nine months into the acquisition, and it has been everything I had expected and hoped for and more.”

Given that Taylor Prime Labels and Packaging is still new, O’Brien has high hopes for the brand — and the chance that he might finally retire, he jokes.

“I see half a dozen facilities being spread out throughout the country doing digital print and making the proper investments to serve everything from mom-and-pop shops to major companies, and I think as Taylor grows, we’ll be more than capable of doing that,” O’Brien says.

Editor's Note:
We are now accepting nominations for the
2024 Hip & Hot Package Printers list.
Please nominate your peers (or your firm) to be considered for next year's spotlight via the following form: https://forms.office.com/r/aNZbpDUQPk